Ritual Feet Washing

Feet washing is an old gesture of hospitality.
The way through the sole to the soul is an ancient healing method.
Touches are the oldest form of communication.

Washing each others feet was part of normal life in earlier times, because roads were dusty and shoes expensive. Therefore washing feet was a daily ritual, a sign of respect and esteem for our fellow human beings. It was not only used to clean, but also to heal and to care for the feet, which were sore due to long distance walking. Today feet washing as a ritual has disappeared from daily life. Even the idea of washing feet often causing amazement or astonishment

In this workshop I would like to bring new life to this ancient ritual.

I developed the Ritual Feetwash Ceremony, as an interactive tactile dance performance/art installation, which devotes special attention to our feet in a respectful frame.
For the duration of the encounter, a very personal relationship develops between the two persons who interact.
This cosy process allows to let go the daily routine with fears and worries for the moment.
To create such an intimate atmosphere in a public space is the core of the artistic idea.
In an act of transformation, the two are carried away from the actual environment and take even the witnessing audience with into a world of well-being.

Gifts of LOVE are something very sustainable …

Please bring a tub where both feet of a man would fit in comfortably and a towel, if you can! But come, even if you cannot bring anything.

delta®

delta® has been an art performer, dancer, choreographer, art director as well as light, stage and S&M artist since the late 70's.

After initial autodidactic experiments with the German expressionist dance of the 1920s, he devoted himself to the Japanese Butoh dance and founded in Berlin in 1988, the first German-Japanese dance company: tatoeba-THÉÂTRE DANSE GROTESQUE with Minako Seki and Yumiko Yoshioka. Since 1995 he also curates together with Yumiko Yoshioka the international butoh dance-eXchange & performance festival eX...it!, which takes place all 4 years at Schloss Broellin/Germany. This year for the 6th time.

In 1998, he started to devote himself to interactive dance (ritual feet washing) and met through that Felix Ruckert with whom he teams up since 2000. At first he worked as a dancer in several interactive performances and till now also as the administrative head of the Xplore-Festivals, schwelle7 and of the non-profit association Compagnie Felix Ruckert Berlin e.V. His many years of private S&M-disposition got in collaboration with Felix Ruckert a new dimension: sadomasochistic rituals developed into an art of sensual communication with artistic and philosophical approach. As a workshop presenter he is in particular trying to give an understanding of the spirituality behind BDSM as a love play. In his "white" S&M rituals artistic expression and loving devotion merge with the imparting of an intense "pleasure-pain-feeling" for the body and a liberating catharsis for the soul. As part of the Creation Team of all the Xplore-Festivals he is responsible for production affairs, especially all the websites, financial affairs, registrations and participant's support.

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